Time Out Of The Mainstream

After returning from a ten day vacation in Miami (spent at the abode of relatives), I'm working on getting back into the groove of "normal" life again. The time off was a nice break in the action, not only from work but also from the new cycle constantly being churned by the media-political complex. While I did keep abreast of the state of worldly affairs by occasionally checking various news sites, it was a dramatic departure from my typical daily diet of media. No talk radio. No television news or commentary (except for watching my brother-in-law in his role as a local weatherman a couple of times). No newspaper reading. Very little blog reading (except of course for regular check ins at Fraters Libertas in the hopes of finding a rare Atomizer nugget).

Not that the vacation was entirely media free. I did catch a decent bit of sports (when my nephew wasn't on the PS2). Mostly football, but even a little college hockey which I was surprised to find on the NHL network last Friday night (SCSU vs.. DU). And with five children ten and under in the house, I also was exposed to a fair amount of television and movies aimed at the younger set. But it was a relief to get away from the relentless grind of day to day politics. I spent very little time thinking or talking about health care, Afghanistan, budget deficits, or climate change (other than how nice it was to enjoy Miami's rather than Minnesota's at this time of year).

It wasn't what you would call it exciting vacation. Other than beaches, parks, and restaurants, we didn't go to many places. And we didn't do that much other than playing, swimming, eating (in, out and everything in between), and drinking (several new beers rated). It was truly a low key family vacation. But that meant it was also a relatively low stress vacation and that it had a certain timeless element to it wherein it was easy to lose track of the time of day and even the day of week at times. That's not always an easy state of mind to achieve. Especially when you're caught up in the daily currents of everyday life.